Essential Plot Points:

Miss Piggy, who is in the show less and less as all the others are getting their own sketches, suddenly has the time to stop and think about her life… and realises she has no friends.

With the help of her assistant Deadly she sets out to find a BFF, enrolling in an aerial silks class to befriend a fellow performer. Alas, her scheme doesn’t work.

Meanwhile, Pizza is still meddling with the show, deciding that Kermit needs to include a sketch about a frozen yoghurt brand to please the sponsors. Kermit refuses, as it says his writers have more integrity.

Pizza sneakily invites said writers – Gonzo, Pepe and Rizzo – out to lunch, though actually takes them to his hugely expensive tailor to get suited up. While there, he talks them into espousing the merits of frozen yoghurt.

Kermit is horrified when the writers return, brainwashed, but once he points out to them that they’ve been bought, they relent. However, they really want to keep the suits.

While at the tailor’s, the guys bumped into RuPaul, and so they all come up with a plan to get RuPaul on the show for a sketch about fashion that incorporates the suits, so the guys can keep them on the show’s wardrobe budget. Pizza is not amused.

Miss Piggy is distracted during the show because she can’t stop thinking about having no friends. Deadly saves her, helping her to sing a song, and she realises Deadly is her best friend after all.

She takes the entire Muppet crew to see Deadly’s production of Clueless to thank him.

Review:

Yet again Miss Piggy gets to walk that fine line between being an utter cow – for example, trying to make friends with someone and rubbing it in that she always flies business class – and being a lonely, vulnerable pig at heart. It would be easy to hate her: with all her whining and bitchiness, she certainly isn’t someone we’d like to go for a drink with. (Imagine how she’d react if the bar served pork scratchings!)

And yet, somehow, the writers of The Muppets both past and present always manage to make her likeable, and here’s a fine example. It’s truly heartrending seeing her look around at people enjoying themselves with pals while she sits there alone. Thankfully, Deadly is at hand to cheer her up and save the day with a surprisingly moving song together. So all’s well that ends well – although the sight of Deadly dressed up as the star of Clueless: The Stage Play is burned into our retinas forever. So, er, thanks for that.

The B-plot is a staple for any show about making a show: the network wanting to incorporate ads and the creative team refusing. What makes it entertaining is Pizza, who manages to channel both Aziz Ansari’s Tom Haverford from Parks & Recreation and every annoying hipster you’ve ever met, basically becoming the dick-you-love-to-hate. Mind you, he did pull off a coup by buying Gonzo, Pepe and Rizzo those suits, if only so they can re-enact Reservoir Dogs in the episode’s best moment.

The Guests:

RuPaul

Ingrid Michaelson

The Good:

There’s always so much attention to detail where Muppets are involved – Kermit nervously clicking a pen as he calls Denise, for instance, is a tiny thing that’s easy to miss but suits his character perfectly.

Miss Piggy still has her pet penguin, Gloria Estefan. Note how it’s living in an ice bucket in her dressing room. Because of course it is.

Pizza pretends to talk Italian with his tailor and says, “Giovanni Ribisi”. Last we heard, tha’’s an actor, not a greeting, you big poser!